Last week something very unusual happened: Canadians actually seemed interested in federal politics.
In response to the Harper government's most recent lawful access bill (Bill C-30, Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act) and a comment made by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews – people “can either stand with us or with the child pornographers” – Canadians took to Twitter. Using the hashtag #TellVicEverything, Twitter users decided that if Toews – as they saw it – wanted access to their private information, they would self-report everything they were doing. Quickly the hashtag was trending in Canada, and on Thursday it was briefly trending worldwide.
Some of the tweets were quite funny. Even Toews thought so. (Listen to this interview on CBC's "The House." Skip ahead to a bit after the 10-minute mark.)
Of course, this raises the questions: Will this be an isolated incident in Canadian politics? Is this good for our political culture?
First, I think we should tell Vic that this is the new normal. Since Canadians have little esteem for their politicians, and because deference is declining, it wouldn't surprise me if such Twitter protests become more common. It offers people a chance to knock their political elites down a notch. Also, Twitter creates the opportunity to join in a conversation and get third-party approval through retweets and replies. Once a hashtag starts trending, people will join in. I think it’s pretty much guaranteed that something like #TellVicEverything will happen again.
However, I doubt we will see such protests in response to every bill before the House. If we did, the exercise would become tired and bored fairly quickly. The Internet doesn't like tired and bored. There has to be some sort of spark that will engage people. For instance, I don’t know how Twitter users could have created something as fun and engaging during the prorogation protests. I just don't think the material was there.
But is this beneficial to our political culture?
It seems to go without saying that anything that makes Canadian politics more fun, more participatory, and less stuffy would be a good thing. I doubt the majority of the people participating in #TellVicEverything knew all the details of Bill C-30, but that may not be the point. I'm sure that some people learned about the lawful access debate because #TellVicEverything was trending on Twitter. That has to be considered a good thing, as long as people are pursuing additional information.
However, these online protests will not always be friendly. By now, you likely know about VikiLeaks30, the Twitter account that tweeted personal details about Toews' life that the mainstream media had not reported on. I think social media got a bit too nasty, with the Bill C-30-inspired homage to the film "Downfall." The German-language film has one scene in which Adolf Hitler has a fit of rage upon hearing of Allied advances that the Nazis are unable to repel. People have inserted their own subtitles over the video of furious, fast-talking Hitler to lampoon numerous issues.
What the video’s creator(s) likely didn’t know is that Toews is of German descent, and was born in Paraguay. Some Nazi officers escaped to South America after World War II. It should be stressed that Germans migrated to South America before World War II, and that Toews is a Mennonite – a faith of conscientious dissenters. However, I wonder if Toews would be sensitive about the video given the stereotypes about German-Paraguayans. I would be.
You can watch that video here. Warning: The video contains explicit language, and references to real politicians that are not based in fact.
Some may argue that the nastiness of this online protest will further disengage apathetic voters. I'd have to disagree. I've never been convinced that meanness causes people not to vote. As John G. Geer argues in his book, In Defense of Negativity, politics has always been nasty, and it always will be. Geer's data suggests that negative political advertising (albeit on TV) actually engages voters and provides them with more information than positive ads.
The thing that concerns me most about these protests is the possibility that high-quality candidates will decide not to run for office because of them. Toews may be annoyed by the “Downfall” video, but he could feel threatened by this YouTube video purportedly from Anonymous.
It would not be good for our governance if such threats resulted in strong potential political candidates refusing to run for office. Everyone has things they don't want revealed in the public square.
These are just some thoughts on a relatively recent event. There's a strong chance I'm wrong. Feel free to tell me so in the comments section below.
Follow me on Twitter @MarkBrosens
